Mark Bruneau—raw

Par Dan Delmar
le 21 août 2008

It is apparent from the start
that Mark Bruneau, who is seeking the Liberal party nomination in the
south-west Jeanne-Le Ber riding, is different. And not the kind of “different”
that is bandied about by most politicians who want to set themselves apart from
so many of their dull and mediocre colleagues. Bruneau, 47, is an eccentric,
in-your-face, heavy-set multi-millionaire with razor-sharp wit and, he says, a
desire to spend the next quarter-century serving his country. In short, he
breaks the mold.

“My entry into politics is not
about opportunism,” he said. “The access I had to education and opportunities
are marks of good, Liberal policy.”

A B.Comm from the University of
Ottawa, an MBA from Harvard, Bruneau is an entrepreneur in the
telecommunications industry, having founded (and sold) Adventis, a Boston-based
consultancy, and is also a former vice-president in charge of
strategy at BCE. His only clear link to Jeanne-Le Ber —the riding
Liza Frulla lost to the Bloc Québecois two years ago— is his involvement
with the construction of the new Bell Campus on Nun’s Island.

Apart from the Island, most of
the riding is working-class and working-poor. Verdun,
Saint-Henri, Little Burgundy, and Pointe-Saint-Charles: not exactly
neighbourhoods whose residents could easily relate to a man who lives in a
three-storey Old Port penthouse condo. A penthouse sumptuous enough to have
cost a small fortune yet which he unabashedly revealed to The Métropolitain in
the midst of a nomination campaign.

It’s all there,
from the backlit colour-shifting walls to the ma-hogany library stocked with
rare first editions to the gigantic terrace which takes up much of the
building’s roof. “I’m just a poor kid from Hawkesbury,” Bruneau said. “I get
off on this.”

Addressing
concerns that his arrival in Jeanne-Le Ber is strictly political expedient and
that his wealth alone may put distance between himself and potential
constituents, he was blunt: “J’étais plus pauvre que toi, pendant plus
longtemps, et je m'en suis sorti!”

Growing up poor
in a small Ontario town along the Quebec border gave Bruneau a sense of
humility. And some deep personal memories. He tears up when speaking of his
late mother whose sacrifices allowed him to pursue higher education.

“If I hadn’t had
some success in life, my mom would have been in line for $3 a day meals,” he
said.

That may explain
his involvement with Resto Plateau, a community kitchen and job-training centre
where he is the honorary president. He said he isn’t afraid to twist a few corporate
arms to make sure funds are made available to causes close to his heart.

Bruneau is
certainly good with money. As the Finance chair for the party’s Quebec wing, he
is charged with replenishing Liberal coffers ahead of a possible autumn
election, at a time when donations are at one of their lowest levels ever.

“We’re involving
more young people,” Bruneau said. “Not the shrimp cocktail crowd at 500 bucks a
pop, but the beer/terrasse crowd at $20 a pop.”

He added that he
will stick strictly to the party’s finances and, as far as leader Stéphane
Dion’s financial problems are concerned, he “won’t be touching the personal
debts of anyone.” Varying reports put Dion in the red to the tune of $250,000;
perhaps as much as $690,000 following the 2006 Liberal leadership race.

With regards to
his field of expertise, Bruneau said he sympathizes with Canadian cell phone
subscribers who pay some of the highest rates on earth and is in favour of
telecommunication industry deregulation. He supports an American-style banking
system where financial institutions would be freer to merge and compete on a
global scale, with added competitive openness for foreign banks to operate in
Canada. He’s very enthusiastic about “new economy” jobs and helping out small
and medium-sized businesses. “We over-tax the knowledge sector of our economy
and we under-tax the old resource sector,” said Bruneau, who spent most of his
professional life, 18 years, in Boston. “We attract minds, students and
redistribute. We don’t retain. We need to keep them here and put them to work.”

From the
aggressive pro-globalization capitalist to the sentimental philanthropist, from
the metrosexual gadget-lover to the teary-eyed orphan, Bruneau is all about
contrasts. His 6-year-old son, an adopted Russian Jew, splits his time between
Bruneau's bachelor pad and his ex-partner's home in

Vermont. His
son's drawings are displayed proudly on the refridgerator, meters away from
chic sculptures. The clashing of lifestyles also carries over to his views on
Liberal policy. “I believe in self-reliance and in helping others,” reads a
line from his website biography. Is the working-class rhetoric sincere, making
him an intensely complex character, or is it a routine to get elected? Either
way, he yells, swears and bangs his fists on the table to drive home his point: